Real estate firm Strategic Capital Partners LLC has hired investment banking veteran Keith Getter to step up the firm's fundraising efforts, part of a plan to expand into cities in the middle of the country, like St. Louis and Nashville, Tenn.

Mr. Getter, 49, started this week as managing director of capital markets and business development, a new position at Strategic Capital, an investment firm founded seven years ago by Gene Zink, a former Duke Realty Corp. executive. As a young investment banker, Mr. Getter helped Mr. Zink take Indianapolis-based Duke public in 1993, one of more than 30 real estate IPOs Mr. Getter has been involved in during his career.

“When we started discussions a couple of months ago and Gene asked me to join him in this senior capacity, I think the relationship that goes back a long time was one of the principal reasons I considered it,” said Mr. Getter, who earned his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Washington University.

...The firm doesn't own anything in Chicago, but that could change, Mr. Getter says.

Because big cities like New York and Washington, D.C., are becoming overpriced, more investors are turning to smaller markets that offer a higher rate of return, says Ben Thypin, director of market analysis for New York-based research firm Real Capital Analytics.

“If you're a foreign investor or an insurance company, maybe you can afford to pay a higher price and get a lower yield,” he said. “But everyone else is not willing to pay those prices, so (investors) are going to be more likely to move into these secondary markets.”

Ben Carlos Thypin

I am currently the co-founder of Quantierra, the world's first data driven real estate brokerage and investment manager. In my former life as Director of Market Analysis at Real Capital Analytics, I worked with press outlets large and small to provide them with great data and insightful commentary. Here are some of the results of this collaboration. For the rest, please check out the News Archive.